Contact Search Criteria

On the first line of the Contact Search Criteria panel is a set of three radio buttons, labeled "Individual," "Organization," and "All," and a checkbox labeled "Show Active Only." If the checkbox is selected (which is the default), only contacts marked active will be returned by the search; otherwise, both active and inactive contacts will be returned. The radio button is used to limit the results to only contacts who are individuals, only contacts that are organizations, or to accept both types of contacts into the results. The available fields in the rest of the panel will change somewhat depending on which of the three radio buttons is selected.

If "Individual" is selected, the rest of the panel will consist of the following:

Last Name: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose last name begins with or contains the provided search string. The Top Search setting under User Preferences determines whether the search looks for a last name that begins with or contains the provided search string
First Name: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose first name begins with or contains the provided search string. The Top Search setting under User Preferences determines whether the search looks for a first name that begins with or contains the provided search string
Contact Type: A multi-select dropdown. Returns only contacts whose contact type matches any of the ones selected.
Case Role: A dropdown. Returns only contacts who hold the chosen role in at least one case.
Address: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose street address contains the provided search string.
City: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose city begins with the provided search string.
County: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose county begins with the provided search string.
State: A dropdown. Returns only contacts whose state matches the chosen one.
Zip From: / Zip To: Two text input fields. Returns only contacts whose ZIP code is identical to or after the one in the first field, and identical to or before the one in the second field. Filling in only one of the two fields will return only contacts whose ZIP code is identical to the one in the filled-in field. Note: the comparisons are alphabetical, not numerical, so that, for example, if you put 9999 in the first field and 100000 in the second, there will never be any results because 9999 is considered alphabetically to be after 100000. Use five-digit numbers in both fields for best results.
Comment contains: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose contact comment contains the provided search string.
Phone: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose phone number contains the provided search string.
Email: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose email address contains the provided search string.
Date of birth from: / to: Two date-widget dropdowns and a checkbox labeled "Any year." If "Any year" is not selected, returns only contacts whose date of birth is equal to or later than the one in the first field, and equal to or earlier than the one in the second field. If "Any year" is selected (which is the default), returns only contacts whose birthday would fall in the range beginning at the date in the first field for some given year (ignoring the year listed in the field), and ending at the subsequent instance of the date in the second field (ignoring the year listed in the field). For example, if the first field read 7/4/1776 and the second field read 2/14/2000, any date between July 4th and the next February 14th (e.g. January 1st) would qualify, regardless of the year.
Language: A dropdown and a checkbox labeled "Primary." If "Primary" is not selected, returns contacts whose primary or secondary language is the chosen one. If "Primary" is selected, returns only contacts whose primary language is the chosen one.
Mailing Lists: A dropdown that allows multiple selections. Returns only contacts that are members of at least one of the selected mailing lists.
Exclude Prevent Mailing: A checkbox. If selected, returns only contacts that do not have "Prevent Mailing" selected in their contact card.
Exclude Allow Mailing: A checkbox. If selected, returns only contacts that do have "Prevent Mailing" selected in their contact card.
Exclude Minor, Deceased, and Incompetent: A checkbox. If selected, returns only contacts that do not belong to the Minor, Deceased, or Incompetent subcategories.

If "Organization" is selected, the panel will differ from the Individual panel in the following ways:

Last Name and First Name are not present. In their place is Organization Name: A text input field. Returns only contacts whose name contains the provided search string.
Contact Type functions the same way, but the available options are different.
Date of Birth and Language are not present.
Exclude Deceased, Incompetent, And Infant is not present.

If "All" is selected, the panel will be identical to the Organization panel except for two things: Contact Type will contain all the options from both Individual and Organization, and instead of Organization Name, there is a text input field labeled "Name:", which returns only contacts whose name contains the provided search string. However, it treats the names of individuals as being of the form "[Last Name], [First Name]" for the purposes of matching. Therefore, to search by a person's full name using the "All" panel, you must use exactly that form, including the comma and single space. (However, if you know you are searching for a first and last name, it is probably better to just select "Individual" and search from there.)

Whichever radio button you select, you may fill out as many or as few fields as you prefer, then click the "Submit" button at the bottom to perform the search, which will close the panel and present the search results in the tab you are currently in. Before you click "Submit," you may click either the "Cancel" button at the bottom or the white X at the upper right to discard any entries in the search fields and close the panel, which will return you to the search results you were already viewing (blank if you opened the search via the top tool bar, or possibly populated if you are editing a previously performed search). If you do not enter data into any of the fields, upon clicking on Submit you will receive results including all Active contacts in the system, or all contacts if the Show Active Only box is not checked.

You can search multiple names by using the pipe (|) character separation. For example:
Robinson, ellen | Selizhuk | geico
will find all contacts with last name Robinson and first name Ellen, all contacts with last name or organization name Selizhuk, and all contacts with last name or organization name GEICO.